Use Real Teeth !!!

[Al.]

One of the things that changed my career was when I started collecting a few real teeth.
I went to dentists and especially a denture clinic and requested some of their extractions for study purposes. Aot of them still had blood and tissue on them so I put them in chlorox and in the ultrasonic untill the tissue desolved.
Probably 5 to 10 min. If you leave them in too long it will start to pit the enamel.
Natural teeth have to be kept hydrated or they will lose their transulcancy. This starts happening immediately so I keep them stored in old porc. bottles in water. This is why I always request for shade checks to be done before preparation of on a later day.

I had spent all my time studing pictures of teeth or other peoples crowns.
One of the first things I noticed when I got real teeth in my hands, is that my crowns looked terrible. I spent so much time on them but sometimes they looked more like flowers or little castles.
I put the teeth on my porc bench and used them as I stacked and contoured porc. crns.
Id encourage everyone to do the same, it will change the way you look at your craft.

Can you quess which is the real deal and which is the fake????

This is Willceram porc. It has been discontinued and replaced with Inline.
But I used to love using it.

Here is a close up of the real tooth. Isnt it beautiful!!!
Look at the design of it. Look at the detail in the lobes and the color.
When you compare the crn with the real thing up close, there is no comparison. It would take high magnification and a tiny bur to get that detail and an explorer to apply the stain and many firings and a hand polish to match the glaze.

I have way too much white on the lingual occlusal, but it is porc not stain so I think I will leave it for now. I dont know if I remember the firing temps for that porc.

 

[CloudPeakDL]

Al,
Awesome work! If I had had half that amount of talent I may have opened a fixed lab.
Thanks

 

[Al.]

Al,
Awesome work! If I had had half that amount of talent I may have opened a fixed lab.
Thanks

I bet that most of the people that frequent this site could do way better work then I ever could (and alot already do),if they put their mind to it, and took courses from the experts in our field,and practice what they learned.

 

[Clear Precision Dental]

You are so correct about replicating the real tooth, and, uh... it kinda' helps to look at the real thing! This is such a great idea.

Another thing I've done is saved several teeth that I poured from high quality impressions that came in with the prepared teeth. That is, I noticed a really nice molar, perhaps two teeth away from the die that I was working on and repoured another cast to save for myself. This gives me shape ideas but not the color, some I'm gonna have to see about scrounging up some non-restored extracted teeth. Can you seal them with a die hardener or something instead keeping them in of water?

You got me planning... it's a good way to start out the new year. Thanks Al !

 

[Al.]

Ive never tried sealing the moisture in. You can take one out of the water hold it up to light and they are very transuclent, but within 15 min they start turning to a bone color.
I noticed that most of the anteriors are more translucent compared to the posteriors and most ant teeth have very translucent roots with the root tips or lower 1/3 being close to transparent in areas.
Thats why it is so tough for me to do a pfm with grey metal on anteriors. That grey goes right through the root.

I also see alot of white on the occlusal surfaces of posteriors, like snow capped mountians. Not as much on Bi's as on molars.
This is good for me making pfms because the whiter incisal porcelins have more masking qualities on those limited space crns. But to much dosnt look good as you can see on the lingual view of the crn pic I posted.
But most of the incisal/dentin on the posterior extractions I have seem to be whiter than my 59 incisal out of the bottle. But the anteriors seem to have more of the traditional body incisal blend.

 

[Al.]

I stuck these to my lamp with some rope wax.

 

[clearH2O]

Hi Al
It is beutifull. I love this forum. I have some real teeth but got discolor green around tissue side. Probably from the disinfecting chem. How to make pictures so clean and have a better reflection like yours? I think quality of the camera and the flask would help in close-up picture. Once more thing, thanks for your post of making DL press.

ClearH2O

 

[TheLabGuy]

Very Nice Al, you out did yourself once again.....pat yourself on the back.....Great Job!!!

And what camera are you using, we want brand and model #'s.....nice pics.

 

[Al.]

Very Nice Al, you out did yourself once again.....pat yourself on the back.....Great Job!!!

And what camera are you using, we want brand and model #'s.....nice pics.

Thanks Rob. FYI Im not looking to stroke/promote myself, if I was I would put my name and lab and contact info out. Theres a boat load of ego in our industry and I dont want to go down that road.
Ive made a ton of screwups and lost plenty of accounts and I figure if I can post some of the things that have helped me keep my doors open mabey it will help some techs and labs here stay open and produce better work. Mabey slow down some of the outsoursing to China.

Thats just a cheap point and shoot cam. I paid $149.95 at Walmart for it.
Its a Kodak Easy Share ZD8612 IS. 8.1 mp with a 12x optical zoom.
I bought it to take pics of wildlife etc around the farm.
I have to stand back 3 to 4 ft and zoom in to get decent pics. It dosnt focus in well otherwise and the flash is to bright.
To take really jam up pics Id like to get one of those Sony or Nikon $400 cams, but then you need to buy a lens for another $400.

 

[Al.]

Once more thing, thanks for your post of making DL press.

ClearH2O

No problem, I have to wax 6 venners tomorrow. They are a real pain in the butt to do. Ill try to post some pics of the way I do it.

 

[TheLabGuy]

No problem, I have to wax 6 venners tomorrow. They are a real pain in the butt to do. Ill try to post some pics of the way I do it.

Please do, I wanna see how you do it. See if we do it the same way.

And a comment about your "Real Teeth". I get myself in trouble with some accounts because I make the anatomy look to much like "real teeth", where the anatomy actually catches food in it and NO I don't create undercuts. It's because the anatomy is so fine and deep. Just giving you all some heads up.

 

[Al.]

Please do, I wanna see how you do it. See if we do it the same way.

And a comment about your "Real Teeth". I get myself in trouble with some accounts because I make the anatomy look to much like "real teeth", where the anatomy actually catches food in it and NO I don't create undercuts. It's because the anatomy is so fine and deep. Just giving you all some heads up.

Your right about anatomy on real cases, also most the extracted teeth Ive gotten have most of the anatomy ground off. I ground most of mine off buy my 30th birthday. Too much beef jerky and a mean Xwife.

 

[Clear Precision Dental]

Too much beef jerky and a mean Xwife.

...and "they" won't let you make the ex-wives into beef jerky!

 

[TheLabGuy]

...and "they" won't let you make the ex-wives into beef jerky!

nice one.................LOL

 

[DMC]

Great stuff!
Amazing skills with the brush and handpiece!

I have a wild looking natural tooth and it's family I'll post pic up.